Theodore Geisel

Theodore Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. He

graduated from Dartmouth in 1925, with a BA in English literature. He went to Europe

after to study at Oxford. He then went to Sorbonne and then to the University of Vienna.

He planned on getting a doctorate in literature, but the experience was less than ideal so

he returned to the United States. (LeBeau 20)

In 1927 Geisel married Helen Palmer who was a classmate of his from Oxford.

She was also a children’s author, until her death in 1967. (Diehl 169)

Theodore started working for a magazine, Judge, in 1927. He worked there

doing cartoons and humorous ads for them. He was also submitting his work to other

magazines such as Life, Vanity Fair, and Liberty. In his ads he made a reference to an

insecticide called Flit, which were noticed and led to a tight contract to draw ads for Flit.

The contract said he couldn’t do anything else. In his ad he used the saying “Quick Henry,

The Flit!”. He did that for 17 years, which gained him national exposure. He only did that

in the summer though, since insecticide is a seasonal thing. He went to an attorney and

found that the only thing his contract didn’t forbid him to do was children’s books.

(Diehl171)

Geisel’s first children’s book came about in 1936 when he was on vacation in

Europe. He was listening to the rhythm of the ship’s engines, he came up with “And to

think I saw it on Mulberry Street.” It was rejected by 43 publishers that he showed it to.

Eventually a friend published it for him and it went on to at least moderate success.

(Morgan 43)

During World War II he joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain

Geisel would write for Frank Capra’s Signal Corps Unit, which he won the Legion of

Merit for. He also did documentaries such as Hitler Lives and Design for Death, which

won him an Oscar. He worked on the 5,000 Fingers of Mr. T., which was something that

he didn’t enjoy. Geisel also created General Mc-Boing Boing while he was in Hollywood,

he sold it to UPA. John Hulbey designed and won an Academy award for it. Theodore

won an Oscar for it, though he had little to no part in General Mc-Boing Boing. (Diehl

172)

In May 1954, Life magazine published an article about illiteracy among school